Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Ezenwo Wike (left), with Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayo Fayose (middle) and their Delta State counterpart, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, during the swearing-in-of Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson in Yenagoa, on Sunday..
In fulfillment of his promise
to make sacrifice in order to create opportunities for less privileged Cross Riverians by expanding government, the Cross River State Governor, Senator Ben Ayade, has voluntarily agreed to slash his salary by 80 percent.
In the same vein, the Deputy Governor, Prof. Ivara Esu, the Secretary to the State Government, Barrister Tina Banku Agbor and all the Executive Council members have slashed their salaries by 20 per cent.
Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mrs. Rosemary Archibong, announced the decision during a Press Conference at the Ernest Etim Bassey Press centre in Calabar.
According to her, “this is predicated on the fact that the Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade wants governance to reach as far as it can possibly reach while increasing participation in government.”
Archibong explained that, “with a lot of financial burden, we decided voluntarily to forego part of our emolument to help meet the personnel needs, human needs of Cross River State Government in support of its vision, policies and programmes.”
The Information Commissioner said the initiative was also geared towards ensuring that “our brothers and sisters coming to government will go home with something.”
She further enjoined Cross Riverians to support Prof. Ayade –led government pointing out that “the slash has nothing to do with salaries of civil servants and will not go into any capital expenditure”.
Present at the briefing were Commissioners for Social Housing, Sustainable Development, Lands, Commerce, New City and Gas Resources.
Others were Commissioners for Special Projects, Environment, Finance, Petroleum Resources, Agriculture, Infrastructure and International Development Corporation.
They did not however disclose their actual monthly emoluments, but rather referred newsmen to the National Salaries and Wages Commission for verification. On whether the decision would affect imprest and overheads, the State Information Commissioner explained that those were for the day-to-day running of government machineries.
Friday Nwagbara, Calabar
